For small and independent ad agencies, the digital landscape is at a crossroads, and the change of pace and a multitude of options can seem daunting. With Google finally canceling the deprecation of cookies on its Chrome browser, not just small agencies, but many in the industry at large may be in a quandary about what this means for their business.
To shed light on this topic, executives from audience insights and measurement provider Quantcast joined Ad Age Studio 30 Editor John Dioso at Ad Age’s recent Small Agency Conference & Awards in Boston. They shared how small agencies can remain competitive by helping clients better use first-party data, omnichannel ad tech platforms and real-time insights.
Harley Cox, Quantcast senior account executive, said that cookies may already be a dead letter.
“About 50% of the internet already is cookieless, with people researching products on Safari, Firefox or in Chrome’s incognito mode,” Cox said. “Users are actually self-deprecating, if you will. For small agencies to be able to compete at a high level, they need to understand where these audiences are. Ad dollars focused on cookies alone may be falling on deaf ears or not reaching the right people.”
The use of first-person data—that information customers willingly provide by visiting websites, registering for information, previously buying products, social media conversations and customer feedback—is the mother’s milk of future targeting, said panelist Kevin Dansky, also a Quantcast senior account executive. Smaller agencies can nurture this to its fullest.
“All of these are amazing resources,” said Dansky. “First-party data is your super power. But what it comes down to it, how do you complement that data and information across different channels and outlets?”
From coffee filters to anime
The Quantcast duo offered a simple case study: The team’s work on behalf of an eco-friendly coffee filter maker shed some light on how first-party data can render mute the rough metrics of cookies.
“We found that the audience for the eco-friendly coffee filters was between the ages of 18 and 30,” Dansky said. “But we also found that this group was five times more likely to be consuming content around anime, those online computer-drawn animations. What does this tell us? Simply, that audiences are complicated. It’s important to understand that first-party data is more holistic, that you can get really creative, and with it you can create a better audience profile.”
Whether cookies stay or go, they’re not determinative, the panelists agreed. Ad channels abound, whether on laptop, mobile screens, social sites, the big screen of streaming or anything else you can think of. Working the omnichannel route can be essential in how small agencies can benefit their clients, and remain competitive.
“How many consumers are watching television while on their phone, or looking at the news on a phone while on their computer?” Cox asked. “The way we consume content is already omnichannel, so it really makes sense to try to approach advertising in an omnichannel way.”
For small agencies, Cox said the most successful tactic is to measure across different channels, such as using data from CTV ads, generally considered a branding play, to activate prospects with lower-funnel messages.
“That will allow a small agency to prove ROI for brand marketing, indicating that a brand campaign was converting at a rate multiple times higher than those exposed to the lower funnel,” Cox said. “That makes a really good argument to the CMO to say, ‘Hey, we should put more dollars into our brand initiatives because they're having a massive effect on the ROI for the entire campaign.’”
Seeking partners that matter
Omnichannel and fragmentation are common parlance. The question is, what to do about it and how can small agencies take advantage of this landscape. Partners are key for small agencies, Cox and Dansky agreed, offering a case study with coffee giant Starbucks.
“Into about two weeks of a campaign launch for a prepackaged coffee bottle, we realized Starbucks was getting negative lift across mobile devices,” Cox said. “Creatives were working wonderfully well on open web and display, but on mobile it wasn’t. That’s how real-time data works best, regardless of cookies.”
The answer was a quick shift and new creative within a week, to improve the mobile campaign.
Dansky noted that small agencies shouldn’t be afraid to lean into partners that offer other specialist services outside of creative to help them run effective ad campaigns.
“Bandwidth for small agencies is a huge issue, so the biggest takeaway is leaning on partners and developing relationships with people who are experts in other things,” Cox said. “For example, we were brought in to speak directly to a client to show, yes, the agency was not just experts in strategy or programmatic or video gaming. They were a partner with us. And it worked. We were a team with separate expertise, working together. If small agencies develop these relationships, they’ll succeed.”
